Tiny screws, wrenches and spare parts littered McKinley High School's pit table.

Team members sweated details as they hustled to replace the motor in their robot before they competed at the second annual VEX Robotics Pan-Pacific Championship at the Hawai'i Convention Center.

"Our robot didn't drive straight ; we had to switch motors," said Jennifer To, an 18-year-old McKinley senior. "We had to do this on the fly."

To and her teammates were at the king of all robotics tournaments yesterday, competing with 90 other entries from Hawai'i, Nevada, California and China. The three-day event, which concludes today, features robots created from the VEX Robotic Design System by more than 1,000 middle and high school students.

Students had to conceptualize their robot, design it and build it. The object of yesterday's competition — called "Clean Sweep" and pitting two-team alliances against each another — was to see which robot could pick up more balls, block its opponent from sending balls over to their court and ultimately dump a large white ball into the opponent's court.

It all had to be done in under three minutes.

"Robotics is really inspiring for people who want to be engineers," To said. "I can't imagine life without robotics."

PROBLEM-SOLVING

That's just what the competition is designed to do, said Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona. It's all part of the governor's push for so-called STEM education — science, technology, engineering and math. This year's competition will qualify top teams to compete in the international championship in April.

"The event promotes these skills at the same time as encouraging the students in a sports-like event," Aiona said. "We need to achieve that sport support for education. It's very important."

McKinley High coach Osa Tui said the robotics competition gives students a real-world approach to learning.

"They have to be able to put up with adversity and think on the fly," Tui said. "They have to come up with solutions to problems they can't foresee."

In Hawai'i, the interest in robotic programs has increased at schools around the state, from four teams from public and private schools in 2006 to 334 today, Aiona said.

On the other side of the room, Kalsi Kwan and teammates Colby Anama and Bryce Matsuda of Hawai'i Baptist Academy tinkered with their VEX robot. During the morning competition, the basket used to scoop up the balls needed adjusting. The screws were loose, said Kwan, 16, a junior.

As Anama tightened the screws, Kwan oversaw the operation. A lot was riding on the competition.

"I've always been interested in building things," said Matsuda, a 15-year-old sophomore. "You really need to be good at problem solving and have imagination to do this."

Sora Kim, a member of the McKinley team, is the computer maven, responsible for linking the physical robot to the computerized hand-held remote control.

"We're hoping to win this year," Kim said. "When we designed our robot, we wanted to scoop as much as possible and dump as quickly as possible."

The team decided to make the robot as light as possible and able to move sideways like a crab so it would be more maneuverable.

"Every match is important," Kim said. "We have five more matches to go. We're pretty sure we won this one."